'Blade Runner' Sequel Gets Release Date

The long-awaited sequel will arrive in January 2018, a full 36 years after the original.

The long-awaited sequel to Blade Runner has at last got an official release, of January 12th 2018, according to its production company Alcon Entertainment.

The follow-up to the cult classic, released in 1982, is currently untitled but is believed to start shooting in July this year. Ryan Gosling has recently been confirmed as joining Harrison Ford, the star of the original, but it’s not thought that any of Ford’s co-stars from the first movie (Rutger Hauer, Sean Young, Daryl Hannah) will be appearing in the sequel.

Harrison Ford will be in the 'Blade Runner' sequel, which now has a Jan 12, 2018 release date

Ridley Scott, who directed the original, will be back in an executive production capacity. Rumour and conjecture has been swirling around the possibility of a Blade Runner sequel for so long now, with reports that both Ford and Scott are on board for the project, but hearing a confirmed release date will make it all seem that much more real for fans of the cult original.

Denis Villeneuve (Sicario, Prisoners) will be directing from a script written by Hampton Fancher, who co-wrote Blade Runner itself, and Michael Green, who is working on Scott’s Prometheus sequels.

Scott revealed recently that the second movie would be starring Harrison Ford’s Rick Deckard once more, but that he’d be appearing near the end of it with the action mainly revolving around a new, young cast.

“Harrison is very much part of this one, but really it's about finding him; he comes in in the third act," he said.

In September, reports emerged about a possible title for the sequel when Warner Bros registered the domain names ‘bladerunnerandroidsdreammovie.com’ and ‘androidsdreammovie.com’, suggesting the sequel might be titled Blade Runner: Android Dreams or simply Androids Dream.

This, of course, is a reference to Philip K. Dick’s 1968 sci-fi novel ‘Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?’, the book from which the first Blade Runner was developed.